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Suspension of EI whistleblower sets dangerous precedent, critics say

Sylvie Therrien was suspended without pay after leaking documents that revealed the Conservatives created "fraud quotas" for Employment Insurance investigators to meet. (PHOTO COURTESY of SYLVIE THERRIEN)

The suspension of a federal fraud investigator who exposed a Conservative crackdown on EI recipients sets a dangerous precedent for government whistleblowers, critics say.

Sylvie Therrien was suspended without pay in May for leaking documents to the media in February that revealed the government had told investigators to find about $485,000 in EI fraud every year.

The “fraud quotas” were just one aspect of an office culture that encouraged cutting benefits from as many people as possible to save money, Therrien said in an interview Monday.

“My values just wouldn’t allow me to do that,” she said. “It was so unfair. These people are like everyone else. They have children, and we send them to the streets.”

When Therrien exposed the policy anonymously, it sparked heated debate in the House of Commons. New Democrat leader Thomas Mulcair charged the Conservatives with assuming all EI recipients are “cheaters and criminals.”

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At the time, the Conservatives responded that the dollar amounts were “targets,” not quotas, that civil servants were encouraged to meet as part of their performance objectives.

Therrien said she decided to go public after she was penalized for not meeting her monthly quota. She claimed she was encouraged by managers to interpret facts in a way that would trim benefits.

“Because of the pressure of meeting those numbers, you highlight some things, you ignore some things, you manipulate some facts. It’s easy,” she said.

The government launched an internal investigation following the leak and suspended Therrien in May. As the investigation continues, she expects she will be fired.

Steve McCuaig, national executive vice president of the Canada Employment and Immigration Union, promised to defend Therrien if she is wrongly dismissed.

“The message (to whistleblowers) is: ‘Be afraid, be very afraid,’ ” he said. “Employees are asked to do jobs, and they’re asked to never say anything about that job. We wonder why.”

A Human Resources and Skills Development Canada spokesperson said Monday that there is nothing new about trying to recover EI money that was wrongly distributed.

“It has been the case for decades that an assumption is made about what amount will need to be recovered because of both honest mistakes in the application process, or because of fraud,” said spokesperson Amélie Maisonneuve.

Civil servants are allowed by law to disclose information to the public only if there is “insufficient time” to contact the integrity commissioner, and it constitutes a serious offence or poses an imminent risk to public health or safety.

NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus said Monday the Conservatives had no intention of living up to their promise of protecting whistleblowers, which they made in 2006 in the wake of the Liberal sponsorship scandal.

“I think it’s a very disturbing sign,” he said. “Civil servants have a job to do, and that’s to protect the public interest. They need to be able to speak the truth to practice that job.”

In the meantime, Therrien says she is sleeping on a friend’s couch and is struggling to support her son, who is in university.

“I did what I thought was right. I did it because I thought it was good for Canadians, and I paid a high price . . . . My whole life is falling apart.”

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